


ASCENSION

by NuWho (jaclinhyde)



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Major Character Injury, Major Character Undeath, Mentioned Jimmy Stone, The Oncoming Storm (Doctor Who)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:49:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 19,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28853829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaclinhyde/pseuds/NuWho
Summary: The 10th Doctor and Rose go through some harrowing experiences to finally end up full circle and in each other's arms.  The Doctor gets hurt and does not believe in his ability to save the Universe anymore but he does believe in her.  So much so that he has to morph into the Oncoming Storm to defend her.  Graphic depiction of the change from Time Lord to the Storm persona and then graphic depiction again of the damage the Storm can do.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	1. SPACE PORT ASCENSION

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50851604918/in/dateposted-public/)

** Chapter: THE SPACE PORT ASCENSION **

**"My love, we're one  
And I run, I run to the battle  
Oh, I run, it doesn't matter ** **if tomorrow** **never comes  
My love, we won  
And I run, I run to the battle  
Oh, I run, to you”**

**“Battle” by David Guetta**

“This… Rose Tyler, is the Space Port Ascension…the first one of its kind the Earth had ever put into deep space. Quite nice actually, much better than those tight quarters on Krop Tor” he shivered thinking about it. The only good thing that came out of being stuck back there on that rock was that he had installed a perfected homing device in the Tardis which was guaranteed to get the ship back to him if they are separated. At the same time, he silently added a new homing program for Rose to take her back to Earth much like the holographic program his 9th self had put together. This time though there would be no way for Rose to get into trouble again by ripping the console apart.

They had spent about a week on the Ascension with Rose dragging him from shop to shop. ‘At least’ the Doctor thought, ‘there were a few ‘little shops’ just like he loved to visit. ‘ They had stopped at a corner cafe with Rose having a delicious chocolate pudding and the Doctor was devouring a banana split. She was licking the plastic spoon clean and he had never wished to be a plastic utensil more in this life than right there and then.

He had to stop thinking like that. Every time he started to contemplate the various possibilities of being more than just friends with Rose, it caused him to become weaker or at least harder to do any ‘universe saving.’ 

His job or his affections? His emotions or his vow to help. He couldn’t see or understand how he could have both. 

As he was contemplating all of this he noticed robot droids coming down a ramp across from the shopping areas who were corralling the patrons into a large circle, holding them there by their sheer numbers. The people were looking around at each other to see if any of them knew what was going on but they were all met with blank, confused stares. Rose looked at the Doctor who was about to go out and see what was happening when an announcement came over the ship's speakers, playing over and over.

“Please go to your assigned escape pod sections, this is only a drill.”

“Since when do droids circle people and keep them together for routine drills? And more importantly how were any of them supposed to do what the announcement said to do if the droids aren’t letting them pass?“ He didn’t realize that he had said that last bit out loud until Rose agreed with his thinking.

“Maybe we’d better go and see what exactly is happening because it seems strange to me too.”

He reached out his hand and took hers before exiting just in case they got separated in the mass of people. They headed out of the back door so as not to be seen by the droids only to get as far as the end of the street when they heard voices coming from the way they had been heading saying…

“HALT…YOU WILL STOP….HALT.” 

“The droids, quick…in here” the Doctor pulled her into what amounted to a small robot repair station and carefully shut the door behind them. Outside they could hear two things: the sound of the robots going by and the sudden panic of the people in the streets. 

“What’s that Doctor?” Rose was pointing at the smoke seeping in from under the door. He pulled out the sonic and scanned it then popping up from the floor and pulled Rose as far back into the room as possible. He grabbed whatever fabric he could find and started shoving it against the crack. 

“GET BACK ROSE AND TRY TO BREATHE SHALLOW” he found a communications terminal against the back wall and opened it, playing with the wires until he heard the lines crackle and the voices of what he assumed to be the bridge coming through. Outside their little room they could still hear the coughing and screams of the shoppers.

“What is it?” she asked as the Doctor paced. 

“Oh, just your run of the mill hydrogen sulphide combined with [Diazomethane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diazomethane), also known as yellow gas which had been banned many years before this Space Port was positioned. Why they are using it when it is so volatile and so toxic is beyond me. Probably using it as backup fuel source, again…against the law. Must have a leak.”

“GET OFF THIS COMM IMMEDIATELY!” came a gruff but panicked voice.

“Is this the Capt. Because if it is you have bigger troubles than me being on your comm port. So let’s cut to the chase before everyone here dies, shall we?! NOW, HOW MANY PEOPLE ON BOARD…NUMBERS CAPTAIN, I NEED NUMBERS AND FAST! “

“I have no idea who you think you are but….”

“NOW!” the Doctor, steely-eyed and only barely holding back his rage.

“Approximately 843, but I don’t know how that will help…..”

“AND IS THE LEAK STATION WIDE?”

(No answer, just the sound of panic)

"Captain, I am trying to stay very calm but you are not making my life easy here so IS THE LEAK STATION WIDE?!”

“No, there are no leaks on the bridge or into the viewing stations or dining areas. That is were the escape pods are and where we are trying to make the people go to.”

“Put the schematic up on this comm so I can follow the route to the nearest free area.”

Seconds later the path was lit up. The viewing stations were right next to the bridge while the nearest dining area was on level twelve, two levels above them but where the oxygen intake valve was probably stuck shut.

The Doctor was looking out of the window in the room and listening for other vessels.

“Why are their no escape pods taking off? Oh let me guess, you were using hydrogen sulphide and [Diazomethane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diazomethane) to power the pods?”

“Yes.” The Captain said in a more hushed voice.

“YOU IDIOTS!” The Doctor had wondered why he did not hear the pods taking off but then realized that the outside hull was soundproof. In a rare display of anger, he picked up the nearest and heaviest tool and went to throw it across the room but then thought better of it and put it gently down instead with a deep breath.

“Now Captain, how many people were in those pods when they ignited because I know they must have. How many people Captain? HOW MANY PEOPLE DID YOU SEND TO THEIR DEATHS?!”

When there was no answer.

“You know what…never mind….I am going to go outside and fix your problem so if you want everyone else trapped on this station to live you will free the airlock located by the dining area on level 12 to let me out.”

He turned to Rose then and simply stared at her for a beat before coming to a decision. “Rose, there are too many people left to try to get them all into the Tardis and it appears the leak of the gas is coming from the venting chamber leading outside. What that means is the seal needs to be opened in order to switch the exchange back to oxygen but it has to be done from the outside. I can handle the gas up to a certain extent but you can’t.” He looked over at the wall and by some miracle, he saw that the room had a few spacesuits hanging there that he didn’t notice before. He rushed over to one and grabbed it off the hook and then checked the tanks. 

“Here, you need to put this on and you will be ok to get to the Tardis. But you have to follow the lights on the floor and retrace the steps that got us here. “ He looked away from her, trying to keep busy by putting the other suit on. It didn’t have as much oxygen as the one he gave Rose but it would have to do. 

“And where do you think you are going?” she grabbed him by the top of his suit

“I have to clear out the valve that has the leak and switch it back to Oxygen.”

“And that is all done outside?”

“Yep” he still wouldn’t make eye contact with her.

“And you expect me to just wait in the Tardis for you” Rose tried to get him to meet her gaze.

“Yep, that is pretty much it”

“No”

“Rose, you can’t come with me. I will move much faster than you could and it will be safer for both of us if you just wait in the Tardis. Now, don’t take this helmet off for any reason until you are back in there and try not to bang any metal against any other metal because this stuff is very flammable and we don’t need a spark.”

“So that is why you didn’t throw that tool?”

“Yep, any spark would have been a bad one. This gas is very volatile and makes fireworks look tame.”

“So what are you going to do to get the valve open?”

“Use my natural brute strength and very manly hands” he flashed her a smile and she couldn’t help but smile back. 

He put her helmet on her and then turned her tank on. 

“Go and hurry up there, you’ll be fine in this suit.” He told her before he put his own on and then opened the door to swollen dead bodies and thick gas. Rose immediately recoiled in horror.

“Rose you can do it, now leave…” she could hear him through the suit which helped. At least they were connected that way.

She took one look back at him and he was smiling at her and shooing her along before they both went in their separate directions.


	2. EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor while trying to save the lives of 843 people is running out of oxygen.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50851604903/in/dateposted-public/)

Now, safely back in the Tardis she was pacing around the console just waiting for him to come back. It had already been 30 minutes and still no sign of him. She was getting scared. She knew that by the time she made it back into the Tardis she was running low on air so how much could he still have?

Suddenly she heard him on the speaker inside the ship. And she knew he was in trouble.

“Rose?” his voice sounded strained, his breathing short.

“I’m here Doctor, I am in the Tardis” then asked, “Where are you?”

“Still trying to get this damn valve open.”

“But Doctor you can’t have much oxygen left in your tank.”

“I know.” Then there was a pause before continuing, “ I’m not going to make it back before it runs out. Just have to get this airflow reversed and then everyone on the station will be OK…..”

“But…but, what about you?” she didn’t like the sound of his voice. His resignation to his fate.

“There is one thing I can try to make the exchange work but Rose, either way, I am not going to make it back.”

“Then just stop now and come back please!” she found herself sobbing even though she wanted to be strong for him. 

“You know I can’t do that. Too many people won’t make it on the station or even in the pods if I don’t fix this. And Rose, what would you have me do? I wouldn’t be a very responsible Time Lord if I let others die to save myself now would I?”

“Initiate Emergency Protocol 62” he said loud enough for the ship to hear and as programmed the Tardis began to move.

“NO!! You are not sending me home like this!!”

“Please.” She knew he was right but still needed him there with her.

“Rose?” his breathing was becoming more labored, “I have to go now. I know what I am going to do. The Tardis will take you home”

“And Rose…” Suddenly there was a very loud explosion that even rocked the Tardis.

She knew instantly what he had done. He must have used a metal tool to bang the hatch open and reverse the flow. 

Suddenly the Tardis stopped moving, even though the Time Rotor kept pulsing. It was as if she was thinking…deciding what to do next. On the one hand, he initiated the Emergency Protocol to take Rose home but then she lost his vital signs and that would initiate Emergency Protocol 12 which would bring her to her Time Lord. 

“CAPTAIN! THIS IS THE DOCTOR’S FRIEND ROSE! I NEED YOU TO PUT SOME KIND OF LINE OUT TO WHERE HE IS LOCATED AND PULL HIM IN!”

“I am sorry miss but we can’t….we have been monitoring him this whole time and it appears he was successful at opening the vent by exploding the gas outward…..the hatch was blown wide open. He saved everyone here.”

“Then teleport him in!” She had talked…begged the Captain just do SOMETHING to get him back on board.

The Captain spoke gently to her “His life signs are gone miss. There is no way for us to teleport someone with no life signs to lock on to, I am truly sorry.”

“Then find a way Captain! You will NOT leave the man who just saved your beautiful space port and everyone on board from absolute destruction out there floating in space! Now, you WILL get him back on your craft to give him at the very least a proper burial!”

Rose choked up when she said this even if all the signs pointed to him not making it. She really couldn’t believe that he was dead.

“I’m sorry really I am.” Then he added, “He was a very brave man”

NO, NO, NO! She will NOT let his body just float away in space!

She looked at the Time Rotor and then remembered something that he had told her after Krop Tor. ‘Installed a homing device’ to go back to him if they are separated. She placed her hand on the coral strut, “He is lost out there girl and we have to get him, please.” The ship, whether sensing her distress or using the signal started to move. Slowly, carefully it drew up to the side of the Space Port before stopping. Rose attempted to convey something else to her, “I need to grab him because he is hurt and floating in space. Can you get me very close and put a shield around the door so I can haul him in?”

Again the ancient vessel began to move and then stopped. Rose carefully opened the door and immediately saw his body floating very close to her. Even from where she stood she noticed that one side of his helmet had caved in which probably happened when the explosion knocked him back. 

Reaching out she was just able to grab the arm of his suit and pulled until he tumbled into the equal gravity of the Tardis. Rose began to quickly take off the suit so she could listen for a pulse but there wasn’t any. Both hearts were silent as was his breathing, his lips were blue and he was a horrible ashen color. The color of death. Least of her worries was that the right side of his face had suffered quite excessive burns.

“WHAT DO I DO NOW GIRL?”

She heard a noise behind her and turned to see a hologram of him standing there talking about taking her home to Earth. Her mum would help him! 

“Hurry girl, oh please hurry!”

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and called home, hysterical crying the moment her mum picked it up.

“What is it, love?!”

“Mum, he’s dead! He is lying here on the Tardis floor and he isn’t breathing and his hearts aren’t beating, his face is horribly burned! He was trying to fix a Space Station on the outside by floating in space and trying to open a valve but couldn’t so he used a tool to do it which worked but it exploded the valve out and set this gas on fire and burned him. Mum he was floating in space with no oxygen for too long and now….and now….mum, we’ll be there in a moment you gotta help!”

Just as she got to the end of her call the Tardis landed in her mum’s living room with a soft thud and her mum came flying in the door and to her daughter’s side. Immediately she began giving him mouth to mouth [resuscitation](https://www.google.com/search?client=-b-1-d&q=resuscitation&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRx76Y8PrtAhWBFjQIHXOVA2MQkeECKAB6BAgcEC8) and thumping on his chest. 

“BOTH SIDES MUM! HE’S GOT TWO HEARTS!”

“COME ON DOCTOR….DON’T LEAVE MY DAUGHTER ALONE IN THIS BOX! SHE NEEDS YOU!”

Rose knelt closer to his ear and said loud enough for both of them to hear…”Please come back, I love you and I promised I would never leave you so I will sit right here until you wake up!”

“Sweetheart” her mum said gently, “he might have been too long without oxygen and without his hearts beating.”

“NO!!!” Rose is panicking now, “HE WOULDN’T LEAVE ME!”

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50553073431/in/dateposted-public/)

“MEDICAL EMERGENCY!” another hologram of the Doctor popped up, “No life signs matching bio-signature registering. Take me to med bay and administer 3cc’s of epinephrine into chest wall between 3rd and 4th rib and directly into each heart….check for hearts beats and if none are found, then utilize electrostatic paddles to further attempt resuscitation”

“Mum, help me get him over there”

They struggled to drag him to the infirmary and once there two paddles fell down from the ceiling and hung next to them, and two filled syringes were on a metal table next to the cot. Rose picked up one very thick needle while her mum counted his ribs.

“Here Rose, give him a shot here and here” she kept a finger on each spot. Rose was terrified to administer it but she was more terrified of losing him. “Ok Mum, move your finger.”

She took a deep breath and forced the needle through his sternum and directly into the heart muscle then pressed the plunger down all the way. Then she repeated it to the other heart. Jackie listened to his chest and just shook her head ‘no.’ 

“Grab the paddles!” she said to Rose who picked them up and then, remembering all the medical drama shows her Mum would make her watch she told her to ‘CLEAR’ and gave a shock to his chest. The force of it brought his whole upper body off the floor then landed with a thump back down. Jackie quickly listened to his chest but still heard nothing. 

“Once more Rose!” who took the paddles and shocked him again. 

The Doctors eye’s fluttered for a moment and then opened wide, looking around. She watched his chest struggle to rise and fall, he gasped for air and then finally it evened out. 

“Rose?” his eyes roamed the room as if looking for her. 

“Doctor, I am right here.” She grabbed for his searching hands and grasped them in her own. Still he searched for her and kept saying her name.

“Sweetheart, I don’t think he can see you and I am not totally sure if he can hear you either.”


	3. VULNERABLE

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50549884812/in/dateposted-public/)

“Sweetheart, I don’t think he can see you and I am not totally sure if he can hear you either.” Jackie looked at her to make sure she understood, “you said that some valve exploded out from where he was working?”

“Yeah, I could feel it in the Tardis” Rose sat there thinking, “Oh my god it must have done damage to his hearing and the loss of oxygen might have caused the loss of his sight.”

She looked down at him and watched as tears ran down his face. Grabbing his hands again she pressed his fingers against her lips and spoke slowly.

“Doctor, you were floating in space for a bit so you were deprived of oxygen and your hearts weren’t beating either. So just for now you can’t see or hear plus your face is burned pretty bad from the gas and from the valve cover exploding. Do you understand?”

The Doctor nodded his head. “Space Port alright?” 

“Yes, you saved it ”

“Where am I?”

Jackie jumped in putting his fingers on her lips, “Hi Doctor, it’s Jackie and you are parked in my living room” then Rose took his fingers and placing them back on her lips

“We had to perform CPR and give you shots in your chest and then we used the paddles on you to get you back. Then the Tardis emergency protocol brought us here.”

“Thank you” he whispered, grabbing Rose and pulling her weakly into his arms. Then he reached out a hand which Jackie grabbed and he responded by squeezing it and repeating “and thank you to Jackie.” She squeezed it back in acknowledgment. 

“Don’t you think you should just lie there a bit? After all, you just came back to life.”

“Mum!” Rose managed to whisper, “Do you have to be so blunt about it?”

“Well, he did! And even though I hate to say it he can’t hear me anyway right now.”

Rose took his fingers again and placed them on her lips’

“Mum thinks you should come inside the flat and rest. Can you get up or do you want us to bring you some pillows and blankets to lay here?”

“Rose, as much as it pains me to say so your Mum is probably right, I should rest inside.”

“See, told ya!” Jackie said, now vindicated

“Okay, okay I am not going to argue with both of you at the same time. Can you walk do you think? We can get you into a pair of your jimjams and stay in my old room so we can keep an eye on you.”

He loved it when she referred to her room on the Tardis as her home now.

“So much pink in your old room” he teased a bit breathless, “But yes, I would like to do that. I think a good rest would help me heal. I might be able to get my sight and hearing back and my face can heal from the burns.”

Jackie and Rose both took an arm and slowly helped him to his feet. They had to stop a few times because he became very dizzy but then he was finally able to walk with their help as he babbled on about his superior alien physiology. Rose had gone back to his bedroom and found some T-shirts and sleep pants for him to wear. It was slow going but they had managed to get him changed and into Rose’s old bed. She took his hand again and placed it on her lips. 

“Are you hungry or do you want to just rest?”

“Just rest I think” but as Rose began to get up he blindly reached for her hand and held on tight. “Please stay Rose…please” 

Without even glancing at her Mum she took off her trainers and jeans and scooted next to him, her arm wrapped protectively around him from behind. To her credit, her Mum didn’t say a word. A few moments past and she thought he had fallen asleep when she suddenly felt his tears on her arm. 

“I was so scared Rose, I knew I couldn’t get back to you and knew that I had to use the bolt cutter to get the valve open. I knew it would explode….knew it beyond any shadow of a doubt. You were the last thing I thought about, as I started banging on that damned latch to free it. I was just hoping you would get back home alright.”

“I started thinking about regeneration but then realized that even if I did I would still wake up suffocating while floating in space. So I made the conscious decision to suppress it. I didn’t want to die over and over. Once was more than enough.” He continued, “And I want to sound brave but in reality, I was terrified. I was so used to getting that second chance by regenerating and even though doing that is excruciatingly painful you sort of savor the pain because it meant that you were still alive. So I knew I was going to die without that fallback and it was ….it was…..incomprehensible.”

Rose spoke against his fingers, “You are the bravest man I know. Even the Captain of the Space Port said so. Being afraid of death is not lacking bravery. Doing the right thing in the face of that fear is being brave.”

He turned over until Rose was resting her head on his chest. Jackie was still standing by the door and listening to what had happened.

“I had to do it, Rose. I had to get that vent open. 843 lives hung in the balance and I couldn’t abandon them. That just wouldn’t have been me to let them die like that. It's not who I am. And as much as I just wanted to try to use the rest of my oxygen to get back to you in the Tardis I knew that you would be alright but all those other people wouldn’t have. I was their only hope.”

She grabbed his hand and kissed the back of it before bringing his fingers up to her lips.

“I know that and accepted that part of you right from the beginning. And I am so very proud of you every time you come to the rescue.”

“I wish I could see you,” he said, hugging her tighter.

“You will. Just need time for your body to heal, right?” Rose looked up at his closed eyes.

“Yeah…” but Rose knew by his voice that he wasn’t so sure himself. 

“Gonna sleep now” he mumbled, halfway there already. She found herself getting sleepy too so she closed her eyes and they both fell asleep, safe and wrapped around each other.


	4. IN THE DARK

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor makes a decision that is a very bad one.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50852437201/in/dateposted-public/)

She woke to his steady breathing under her cheek, the rise and fall of his chest, and his arm draped over her. His hearts were beating steadily, reassuring her that he was still with her. 

But instead of being completely still, he was using his fingers to trace the features of her face as if trying to memorize the peaks and valleys of her skin. She could feel his warm breath against her hair picking up as he ‘looked’ at her with his hands.

“I always knew how beautiful you were but to see you this way is so….so, stimulating.”

Her breath hitched at the word and then matched the speed of his. His thumb grazed over her lips and that action, for some reason, had felt much more intimate than how it had felt as he ‘listened’ to her words. He wasn’t trying to become aroused, but when you can’t see or hear…when you can only feel and you are wrapped around the woman that owned your hearts it was almost impossible to not react. 

“So beautiful” he murmured quietly as he brushed his lips over her forehead. Then he felt Rose sigh and he knew she was wide awake and it was like someone dumped a bucket of ice on his emotions. ‘He couldn’t let her know,’ the voice in his head told him, ‘he was just a burden now.’ 

Even before the accident, he knew that his lifestyle was too dangerous to share with anyone. Why was he doing this to her? To himself? How could he fall in love with her when he should just walk away? She was always at risk. He made her a target. His ‘job’ could be deadly to any life he touched and he never wanted that to touch her. Everything he did in his long life screamed ‘let her go, for her sake just let her go.’ 

She never should have saved him. 

She should have left him there floating in space. 

What kind of a hero can he be if he can’t see or hear anyway?

He was dwelling on his deficits, trying to spare Rose while she in turn was trying to comfort him. 

He turned away from her then and faced the door which left her confused and empty. 

Something dark was brewing inside of him, something he didn’t want to infect her with. He mentally shook his head to try to clear it and just found himself being swallowed up by sleep once again. 

‘He heard a clanging noise far off in front and to his right but couldn’t figure out what was making it. He had heard it before, in many different forms and it both frightened him and drew him nearer. He had to find out what it was. He felt something in his hand. He was holding something very tightly, so tightly that his palm was bloodied and he was hitting an object in front of him. He was the one making the clanging noise. The thing in front of him turned towards him and he backed away quickly…it was a Dalek. And in his hand was one of its ‘arms.’ It was screaming at him ‘EXTERMINATE” when very suddenly it crashed into him and broke the helmet from the space suit. A burning gas seemed to be trying to melt the right side of his face which was blistering now while he was panicking from lack of oxygen. Rose was crying out but he couldn’t see her….the pressure of space had blinded him and then there was a horrible ‘BOOM’ that took his hearing as well. His last thoughts were of Rose, hoping that she got home. And he thought too about how he refused to regenerate. Even though he knew he would never see her again, THIS was the face he wanted to die with because Rose seemed to really like it. The pressure from space was crushing his skull with a pain that was beyond anything he had ever experienced before. He tried again to breathe but there was nothing but space, beautiful stars all around that he knew by name. ‘

‘Then there was nothing to remember at all.’

“He is just exhausted luv” her Mum was trying to console her, “Think about it: he had fixed that ship then died, was brought back to life only to find he was blind and deaf. I think he is acting as best as can be expected.” She said all this with a look of ‘he is having more than just your average bad day’ on her face.

Rose slumped in the chair in the kitchen while her Mum made her tea. She was exhausted as well and oh so worried. Jackie was doing her best to keep Rose calm but she knew the only thing that was going to make her better was if the Doctor himself got better. 

“I heard what he said, you know” her Mum said, “What he did, how he did it. You know sweetheart, sometimes when I think of you flying around the universe with him, well it scares me to death….those are the times where I really wish you were home with me. Meeting a human man to fall in love with, having babies, a normal job….”

“Mum! I could never leave him! I…I…”

“You love’m, I know.” her Mum smiled at her. “And I know that there would be nothing that I could say to change your mind. When you grow up you don’t pick who you fall in love with, it just sort of hits you when you least expect it. I still remember when you thought you were in love with Jimmy. Did you ever tell the Doctor about him?”

“Yeah once. He was so mad that he wanted to find him and cut off a part of his anatomy if you know what I mean…” she looked up at her mother who just smiled and nodded her head. “And then when I told him that he was in jail but had threatened revenge on both you, me, and my friends for putting him there….well, I have never seen the Doctor angrier than at that moment. Said he should never be allowed to get out and if he had his way he never would.”

Jackie had gone quiet and when Rose looked up she saw that her Mum had turned pale and was shaking. Rose got up and quickly ran to her side pulling up a chair so she could sit.

“Mum, what’s wrong?”

“I…I thought you knew but I guess you didn’t hear….Jimmy’s dead, Rose.” 

“What?!” It was Rose now who had to sit down, “When? Where?”

Jackie continued, “Well that’s the thing, they can’t figure it out. He was due to be released and was alone in his cell and then when he was checked on that night they found him dead. His neck was broken. And there was no way in or out so the death was just left unsolved. You don’t think the Doctor would have....?”

Thinking back Rose remembered that the night she told him about Jimmy he had taken her to see her Mum and then said he was going to tinker with the Tardis which was not out of the ordinary. But when she went back to the ship to grab a pair of jeans she couldn’t find him. He later told her that they must have just missed each other wandering around but she had checked everywhere.

“Yes Mum, yes I do.”

To which Jackie replied, “I never thought I would say this but ‘good”

Suddenly they heard the Doctor cry out and they ran to see him sitting up in the bed, gripping the edge of it with white knuckles and trying to catch his breath. 

“NO!! STAY AWAY FROM HER!! DON’T YOU DARE GO NEAR HER!! ROSE RUN!!”

She sat down on the bed next to him and threw her arms around him, burying her face in his neck. She pried his hand from off the bed and began kissing his palm which at first made him flinch but then he relaxed and pulled her onto his lap and sobbed, holding her tight. Jackie shut the door to give them their privacy telling Rose she was going to go and make a good breakfast for all of them. 

“Rose you were being attacked by a Dalek and I was chained up and I couldn’t get free to save you. I had to watch….it made me watch as it tortured you and…and…oh Rose I can’t do this to you. I can’t keep putting you in danger.”

She began to talk to him but then realized that she would need his hand to do so. Grabbing his fingers and placing them to her lips she said….

“Doctor, we are a team you and me. We protect each other, remember? “Should I just chalk this up to you being hit very hard on the head or am I unceremoniously being dumped?”

She released his hand and let it drop down to the mattress.

“Rose, you don’t understand. But I don’t expect you to, really. I have had nearly 1000 years putting my own life at risk….1000 years of fighting off all manner of enemies who have sworn to kill me to finally understand just how much danger I put you in every time you step out of the Tardis with me. I can’t risk your life too. And this! What I am going through now isn’t even an old enemy of mine! I am blind and deaf because I faced down SPACE, of all things, and lost! I have no right to put you in harms way. I won’t put you in danger any more.”

He wanted to pace so badly and even though he probably could manage it just by using his natural Time Lord abilities he stayed put so as not to take the chance. His head was still sore and if he fell….

He realized right then that he was going about it all wrong. When the time came he would just leave, for her sake he would get back in his Tardis and meet his uncertain and dangerous future alone, risking no one but himself. 

“Rose, I just worry too much that’s all. The dream of the Dalek hurting you was horrible”

Rose had gotten up and was doing the pacing for him as he spoke but she sat next to him again. And her warmth and scent returned, soothing him. Just then Jackie opened the door a crack to let Rose know that breakfast would be ready in about 10 minutes and did they want to eat in the bedroom or were they coming into the kitchen to have it. She took the Doctors hand and placed his fingers on her lips asking where he wanted to eat and he told her the kitchen and got up and walked ahead of Rose to get there just to show that he could. 

“Rose,” he said sitting down, “After breakfast would you go into the Tardis and bring some eyedrops that might help my sight….and some of that special wound cream we had gotten on Massup for the burns? I’ll tell you where you can find them.”

“Of course I will” she said against his fingers as they all dug in and had their breakfast. At first, Rose had to help him with his meal but then he brushed her away saying he was fine. Both Jackie and Rose knew that he was just embarrassed and hated being treated like a child.

Five days came and went and his sight was no better even with the drops being administered every hour. His burns were gone, without leaving any scars but he was losing hope and was beginning to resign himself to his fate of being a blind and deaf Time Lord.

It was then, on that 5th day when he decided he was having none of it. That he was NOT going to settle for being

less of a man than who he had been. He had thought about it for days, what he would do…what he could do until he finally came up with a plan.


	5. TWO TINY PILLS

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50852508736/in/dateposted-public/)

**DOCTOR: I'm old enough to know that a longer life isn't always a better one. In the end, you just get tired. Tired of the struggle, tired of losing everyone that matters to you, tired of watching everything turn to dust. If you live long enough, Lazarus, the only certainty left is that you'll end up alone.**

**The Lazarus Experiment**

**Doctor: I could do so much more. So much more! But this is what I get. My reward. And it's not fair! Oh. Oh. I've lived too long.**

**End of Time**

**"Don't wanna let you down**  
 **But I am hellbound**  
 **Though this is all for you**  
 **Don't wanna hide the truth** "

**“Demons” by Imagine Dragons**

Rose had been out that day doing some last-minute shopping for dinner that night but when she found the store closed she went back to the flat guessing that take-out was on the menu for that evening.

“Mum the store was closed….I think they are doing some sort of renovation and….what’s that?” Her mother was sitting by the Doctor holding a glass of water in one hand and 2 white and round pills in another. She was about to hand them to him when Rose jumped in and stopped her.

“He said that he had a headache and asked me for two aspirin.” Rose knocked the pills out of her hand. 

“What’s gotten into you anyway?” Jackie was staring up at Rose while Rose never took her eyes off of the Doctor.

“Mum, aspirin is poisonous to Time Lords. One pill….just one would be enough to kill him!”

“HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?! HOW COULD YOU TRY TO KILL YOURSELF?! AFTER EVERYTHING…AFTER ALL WE HAVE JUST BEEN THROUGH, YOU TURN AROUND AND DO THIS?! WE BROUGHT YOU BACK TO LIFE, WE AREN’T GOING TO TAKE IT AWAY!” Rose was beyond angry. If she hadn’t come home at that exact moment….

“YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT ME THERE!” he turned his own anger and frustration outward, “WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SAVE ME?! I WAS SUPPOSED TO DIE THAT DAY BUT NOOOO, ROSE TYLER HAD TO CHEAT DEATH OF ITS ULTIMATE PRIZE!! NOW I AM JUST THE CRIPPLE TIME LORD, WELL ISN’T THAT WONDERFUL.”

He stopped long enough to take a breath…..

“What are you going to do Rose when someone cries for help and I can’t do anything about it! Tell me! You can’t help them alone, you don’t regenerate, YOU WILL DIE HELPING! I have a whole damn universe to worry about and you have….what, ME?! You will worry about me all the time I know you will, but you can’t stop me from doing what I was tasked to do so long ago. YOU CAN’T STOP ME no more than you can stop this planet from revolving around its sun!”

“Doctor let me ask you this, what if the roles were reversed would you have just left me there floating there without trying to save me? REALLY?!” she couldn’t believe that he would just let her die out there alone without saving her.

“THAT’S DIFFERENT! I AM DIFFERENT!! YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE SAVED ME!!!” he was shaking with anger now, determined to make Rose see how worthless he was.

“WE ALWAYS SAVE EACH OTHER AND IF YOU THINK THAT FOR ONE MINUTE I WAS GOING TO JUST SIT THERE IN THE TARDIS WHILE YOU DRIFT OFF INTO SPACE THEN YOU DON’T KNOW ME AT ALL! SINCE WHEN ARE YOU SUCH A COWARD?!”

That hit the Doctor hard, so hard that he brought his voice down to a menacing level, “Don’t you DARE EVER call me that again, Rose. I NEVER run away from anything!”

“Oh right, the mighty Time Lord is just afraid of living! Afraid of facing his emotions head-on instead of running from them for once! So on top of being a coward, you are a liar because you are running away for a living!”

“Rose, don’t! Don’t push me like that!”

Jackie was trying to get in the middle.

“Doctor?” she said, “Rose?”

“ MUM, STAY OUT OF IT!”.

“No, you are both gonna listen to me” Jackie was adamant that they pay attention.

“WHAT? WHAT IS IT NOW?!”

“It’s the Doctor. You are both so dense. He can hear now. Doctor you can hear me, right?”

He sat down suddenly as the realization hit him. He can hear! His body has healed enough for him to hear! That at least was back.

“Rose talk to me, please” he begged, the proverbial wind knocked out of his sails but she just shook her head no.

“I have nothing to say to you right now except that I am happy you can hear again. Other than that I just need a break. Mum, can I talk to you in private for a moment.”

“Just a moment sweetheart.” Jackie walked up to him sitting on the bed and slapped him harder than she had ever done before, knocking his head back against the headboard. 

“OWW, I just got my hearing back are you trying to take it away again?!” He said, rubbing his cheek.

“That’s for using me to try and help you take your own life. Next time you want to do something stupid like that I will just leave you the whole damn bottle for you to take on your own back in the Tardis. You will not try something like that here in my flat again. Do you understand me?”

He just nodded his head in agreement. And in shame.

She walked out to the parlor and to where Rose was sitting.

“I am sorry sweetheart, I had no idea.”

“I know Mum, I am not mad at you just him.”

“What was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Do you remember an old friend of mine from school named Robert? He always wanted to take me out?”

“Oh let me guess you are going to go out on a date with him.” Jackie was surprised, to say the least, that Rose would even consider dating.

“It’s not a date. Shareen and Trish are coming too. We are just doing a bit of bar-hopping tonight. You know, reconnecting with old friends. Just to have a bit of a laugh .”

“I think that would be a great idea, lord knows if anyone could use some time outside of the flat it is you. I’ll keep an eye on him while you are gone, don’t worry.”

Suddenly the Doctor, who was standing there having overheard part of their discussion chimed in “First of all, I don’t need a damn baby sitter, and secondly, who is Robert?”

Now it was Rose’s turn to be angry but Jackie stopped her before she could answer. “He is an old friend and they are going out to a few clubs. That is if it is alright with you?” she couldn’t help saying it with a little sarcasm

“She can go out with whomever she wants to Jackie, I don’t own her, I was just curious that’s all” was his reply even as the tightness of his jaw and the tone of his voice said otherwise. 

(‘Wait, this is a good thing. You want Rose to find someone else so don’t play the possessive ass now that she is readjusting to life back home. Yep….definitely a good thing’)

Rose sighed and just looked at him, wanting him to say something…anything to show her that he cared. But he remained silent.

“Well, I am going to go to the Tardis and find something nice to wear.” She turned and made her way to the ship.


	6. I'M NOT IN LOVE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No matter how hard he tries to convince himself that they are just friends, something or in this case, someONE wakes him up to the truth.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50549764656/in/dateposted-public/)

**“** **I keep your picture, up on my wall.  
It hides a nasty stain that's lying there.  
So don't you ask me to give it back,  
I know you know it doesn't mean that much to me.  
I'm not in love”**

**“I’m Not In Love” by 10cc**

The first indication that he had something bigger than himself to worry about was the gasp from Jackie as Rose came back into the flat. 

“Rose! You look stunning! My little girl is not a little girl any more….”

Just the day before the Doctor began to notice the vague outlines and shadows of people and things so hopefully that meant that his sight was coming back. But he cursed himself at that moment for not being able to see Rose. What Jackie was saying was concerning him probably more than it should. He knew that Rose was not the young shop girl that he met just a few years back but he never realized that others could see that too. With her gorgeous toned legs and the way her boyish figure had filled out in all the right places there was no doubt that she had grown up into a mature and tantalizing woman.

“You don’t think it is too short do you Mum?” 

(‘How short was it?’)

“Well it IS short but a dress like that is supposed to attract attention anyway so it is the perfect length.”

(‘There were plenty of pantsuits in the Tardis wardrobe damn it’)

“You’d better wear a coat though or you are going to be cold. “

(‘How much does this dress cover or NOT cover anyway?!’)

Just then the doorbell rang and Jackie went to open it. “You get it Mum, I want to make an entrance.”

“Robert! Long time no see, how have you been?”

A man with a deep voice began telling Jackie about his job as the newest Solicitor in one of the largest law firms in town and how rewarding and challenging the caseload was.

(‘Solicitor….HA, like Rose would ever be satisfied with someone as mundane as that. Stuck up lot, all of them’)

“Oh, Robert this is our friend…”

The Doctor realized that Jackie was introducing him so he jumped in, held out his hand.

“John…. John Smith. Doctor John Smith. Forgive me but I am having a bit of trouble with my eyesight…accident at work, but it is improving.”

Robert shook his hand firmly and said hello. It sounded like he was about to make conversation when Rose walked in the room.

“Rose…hi, you look amazing! Ready to go? Shareen and the rest are going to meet us down at the pub”

“See you later Mum….you to Doctor. Don’t wait up .”

“Bye Rose, have fun and be careful”

(‘Why did he have to add that in there and what did she mean by ’don’t wait up?’)

“Yes dad, I will” she teased back at him as she walked out the door.

(‘DAD?! Is that how she perceives him? Is that what he sounded like, her father!?’)

She might have told them not to wait up but he couldn’t sleep. He didn’t know if it was his imagination or not but he thought his sight was a bit better. He made his way back into the Tardis and found his glasses…why he didn’t think about them before he wasn’t sure but he guessed that when you are blind glasses aren’t going to be much help. But now…oh now they did! He took out his sonic and increased their power and now he could just make out faces! At this rate, he was sure his sight would return completely, possibly within the next few hours. He went back into the flat and was about to make some tea when the phone rang. Somehow he knew right away that it was Rose and that something was wrong.

He picked it up and the first thing he heard was Rose sobbing on the other end. 

“Calm down,, ssshhhh….just tell me.”

“I told him….I begged him not to drive, to give me….to give me the keys but he said he was fine.”

“What happened?” Jackie came out of her room, “What happened to Rose?” 

He put her on speaker so Jackie could hear.

“Are you alright?” the Doctor was desperate to know.

“My wrist….and…and…I hit my head and am bleeding from a cut and it hurts but otherwise, I am ok.”

“Where is he? What hospital are you in? Where did they take you after the accident?”

There was no answer. He could hear her breathing but she didn’t, or wouldn’t answer.

“Rose?” 

“He said he would lose his new job…he can’t…he said he can’t let his job know that this happened so he…he threatened me..told me not to tell or he would make me pay somehow.”

He was beyond angry. He hadn’t felt this angry since the Time War. Since maybe never. 

“Where are you….cross streets if you can. We will be right there.”

“Empire Street and Gold Lane. Doctor….I’m sorry”

“Rose you did nothing wrong except to get in the car…”

“But I didn’t get in the car”

“Ok now I am confused…”

“I was trying to get the keys and he kind of….kind of dragged me.”

The Doctor grabbed the back of the chair next to him to keep from falling. This man didn’t want to get in trouble? He has no idea the amount of trouble he really is in. He was vaguely aware of Jackie standing next to him with her hand on his shoulder. He was shaking, knuckles white on the chair.

“Let’s go, Doctor. Let’s go get our Rose.”


	7. THE CALM BEFORE THE....

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50549768911/in/dateposted-public/)

He threw on his clothes while he put in the coordinates for where Rose was located, and they landed a moment or two later. The Tardis, sensing the urgency and the anger that was coming off her Time Lord in waves opened the door before he even reached it. He could see well enough now to make out Rose sitting alone on a step in the alley. He softened immediately.

Kneeling down in front of her he felt with his hands to gauge her wounds. He could make out the cut on her forehead and knew that it might need a few stitches. She yelped when he took her broken wrist in his hand. 

“Anything else hurt?” he asked her gently.

“Just my head from where I hit the pavement”

“Probably have a mild concussion. When you get back into the Tardis take two of those blue pain killers that we got on Roth a few months back.”

He ran the sonic over her and when he finally finished assessing her injuries he asked her exactly what happened.

“I watched him and I thought that he was too drunk to drive.” She was a bit calmer now since he was there, “ He had the window open in the car and we were fighting about it then I reached in to grab the keys out of the ignition but he just decided to take off, and…and….my hand was stuck in the steering wheel. I was so scared because he wasn’t stopping. He wouldn’t stop! Then I finally got my hand back out and managed to grab the keys so the car stalled but that is when I fell and hit the ground. When he saw that I got hurt he just laughed saying that I deserved it, and that was when he threatened me and told me to not tell anyone! He was so mad I thought….I felt like…“

She stopped and looked away, fresh tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Like what Rose?” he cupped her cheek.

“Like he was going to hit me…but he didn’t…. but he was so mad. I started thinking about Jimmy and what he used to do when he got mad and…I…just…got so scared. Except for Mickey, all the men in my life have hurt me in one way or the other and it just isn’t fair!”

That made the Doctor think about earlier in the day, ‘had HE hurt her with his words?’

“I am sorry if I hurt you earlier with what I said, Rose. I don’t want to hurt you and that is the point. The thought of you getting hurt is almost too much to bear. Please don’t include me in that list of men.”

He wanted to make sure she knew how sincere he was. He wasn’t 100% sure that she felt the same for him as he did for her but he took that leap anyway. 

She looked into his eyes and saw anger but also tenderness. She didn’t mean for him to feel lumped in with the other men, didn’t even know he would consider himself one of ‘her men’ at all.

“Anyway, “ she continued between sobs, “I shoved the keys down my dress and he wasn’t going to go fishing around for them out in public so he just stormed off back into the bar. “

“And that is where he is now?” she nodded her head.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50852224501/in/dateposted-public/)

**To the Rescue**

“Ok,” he took a deep breath and felt his blood begin to boil again. “Jackie, take her back into the Tardis and wash out that cut. Then put some antibiotic ointment on it…Rose knows where it is, and then she can take those blue pills I spoke of. As for her wrist just put some ice on it and I will take care of it when I come back”

“Wait…where are you going?” Rose asked as she stood up, but he just gave her a look that she had never seen before but spoke volumes.

For him, he stood there looking at her, her beautiful dress torn, her body bruised and broken all because she tried to do the right thing and he felt something well up inside of him. He had been such a fool. He realized in a quick flash of insight that she was barely safer here on Earth than she was traveling with him. At least he could look out for her….protect her. He made a decision right there and then that if he could help it NOTHING and NO ONE would ever hurt her again. He loved and needed her fiercely and completely and it was so freeing to finally admit that, if only to himself.

With a shaking hand, she reached down between her breasts inside her dress and pulled out Robert's keys, and handed them to him. They were still warm from being nestled next to her and carried her scent, a distraction if there ever was one.

“Be careful, he was very angry before,” she was so scared that he would get hurt.

“No need to worry about me,” he said turning serious, “Worry about him. He has no idea what anger really is but I will give him a lesson that he will never forget. Now go back to the Tardis and rest and I will be there before you know it. This shouldn’t take long.”

He kissed her forehead, hovering there a bit longer than expected and then gave her a tiny push toward the ship. Jackie walked up to him and like Rose, told him to be careful.

“You know I really wanted to come with you to ‘talk’ to him.” she said, “ If you think I slap hard you should feel me punch.”

The Doctor laughed, “No thanks Jackie, I hope to never be on the receiving end of that kind of anger from you.”

“You’re eyesight seems much better now.” Rose noticed, surprised.

“Yes, actually it is. The glasses help a lot.”

“Seriously though, what are you going to do to him?” Jackie once again placed her hand on his shoulder, noting that his muscles were tight and that his whole body was practically humming with energy. She perceived him as the otherworldly shadow of the man she knew now solidified.

Even though he wanted to rush in there he knew that doing so would be a bad idea so he welcomed the distraction. He needed to take that moment to breathe and maybe explaining to Jackie would help a bit.

‘What do I WANT to do to him and what I WILL do are two different things…maybe. Time Lords always placed logic and reason above all else and were a peaceful lot on the whole. Very cerebral and I guess you would call them cold, definitely boring. I was the rebel though and have never been like that..well, I was a bit. Can’t escape what was drilled into you as a child.” 

“Anyway, if you go back to when my species was in it’s infancy you would find that they started out very different. Our people began as very aggressive fighters who could and would destroy anything that dared to challenge them. We were cunning and were ruled more by emotions. My struggle, as it was for all Time Lords, was to be able to keep that in check.”

“But not tonight. This person hurt Rose and I will not allow that to go unpunished. Trust me, he will pay.”

He was distracted by the sky noting that they were darkening. ‘Fitting’ he said to himself with the voice of another person, another time, another place. He closed his eyes, feeling the wind pick up before opening them again and looking wild-eyed back at Jackie.

She watched the Doctors’ features harden into stone.

“Better get back to the Tardis Jackie, a storms coming”

_[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50549769601/in/dateposted-public/) _


	8. STORM OF THE ANCIENT'S

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING! EXPLICIT VIOLENCE BEGINS HERE AND ALSO SOME EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
> 
> The Storm arrives to even the score.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50893217212/in/dateposted-public/)

**“I seek to cure what's deep inside,  
Frightened of this thing that I've become.” **

**“Africa” by Toto**

**"I've got nothing left to live for  
** **Got no reason yet to die  
** **But when I'm standing in the gallows  
** **I'll be staring at the sky"**

**"Somebody to Die For" by Hurts**

**  
******

He stood outside the door to the bar, alone. Using rage as fuel he closed his eyes and dropped both his mental and psychic defenses. By doing so he opened himself up to his, older, more primitive mind, and thereby forcing his higher brain functions to close. The change was painful; not as agonizing as regeneration of course especially with most pain receptors repressed but he could still feel it. His hand shook violently as it gripped the door handle to the point where it began to rattle on its hinges. He took a deep breath, enjoying the feel of air inflating his lungs as if he had never used them before. Slowly his hands began to relax and steady themselves as the change inched towards completion. The pupils of his eyes elongated to let in more light and his hearing became so acute it could pick up sounds above his normal range.

He had become the representation of the ancient feline creature that the Gallifreyans sprang from.

THIS is what his ancestors struggled to keep in check, what they attempted to repress. 

What they feared even more than a Dalek. 

He licked his lips in anticipation of a battle to be fought. 

The ancient one smiled as he opened the door.

To say that a man walked into the bar that night would be very wrong. Not a man and not the Doctor. Not human but not alien in the strictest sense of the word. Something that could not be explained nor understood.

The Doctor was gone with only the entity known as the Time Lord standing ready in the shadows.

What entered the bar was a Storm. So destructive of a force that all the men instinctively turned away, not daring to make eye contact. 

They knew better than to challenge the alpha male. He sensed their fear. Good, they should be afraid. 

Curiously, the women found him alluring and followed him with their own predatory eyes. He walked past them with a cat-like grace, long legs propelling him forward.

About halfway in he stopped and merely stood there. All around him the people seemed to speak in more hushed tones as if waiting for the cobra to strike. He scanned the room with pinpoint precision, looking at each male one after the other. He only could go by the voice of the one who hurt Rose so he tilted his head to the side, closed his eyes, and listened. It only took a moment to hear a man’s laugh that, if he took it and changed it up to be speech, should be him. But ‘should be’ him didn’t translate to definitely is and he couldn’t take that chance. 

He was about to call out the man’s name when he noticed that at the end of the bar someone with bloody scratch marks on his hand was talking to the bartender, laughing about his ‘date that scratched him up during rough sex.’

Before he could move any further he felt someone brave enough to tap him on the shoulder and he turned to find Trish standing behind him.

“Is she alright? She wanted to be alone and didn’t want me to call anyone so I waited in here for her to come back.”

“Yes, she will be fine. Is that him at the end of the bar?” That was all he wanted to know. He was tired of talking. It was time for action.

She backed away from his intensity and nodded her head yes. “He is making up stories about Rose. They never left the bar, Rose hadn’t see him in a long time.”

He really didn’t believe what Robert was saying but it was still nice to hear that it all was a fabricated lie. 

Now that he had found the enemy he allowed his body to slot in the last piece and fully prepare itself for battle. His breathing sped up and his hearts pumped faster.

And it all happened in the blink of an eye. 

**INTERLUDE: THUNDER**

**“Just a young gun with the quick fuse**   
**I was uptight, wanna let loose**   
**I was dreaming of bigger things**   
**And wanna leave my own life behind**   
**Not a yes sir, not a follower**   
**Fit the box, fit the mold**   
**Have a seat in the foyer, take a number**   
**I was lightning before the thunder”**

**“Thunder” by Imagine Dragons**

He stepped forward until he was standing directly behind Robert, removing his long coat and tossing it on a bar stool out the way. Robert had sobered up by that time; threatening women will have that effect on most people. He was a big man, obviously worked out, a unique combination of brawn and brains judging by his legal profession. 

It was of little consequence to him. 

All the sound in the bar; all the mindless chatter, the shrieks of laughter and rattles of glassware fell away. There was only the person he had targeted. Glancing at the mirror behind the bar Robert caught his unwavering stare which stopped his hand holding his glass in mid-sip.

“Hello again. Doctor Smith, correct?”

“Wrong (he began then repeated because he had said the word ‘Wrong’ in Gallifreyan) as cliché as it sounds, I really am your worst nightmare”

His instinct said strike and so with a snap of his fingers, the Time Lord appeared placing both the Storm and the man inside a bubble of his own making. The other patrons remained unaffected while both enemies moved faster than the second hand on the clock. And by doing so the two became invisible. 

Grabbing the collar of his coat he hauled Robert off of the barstool and into the table behind them where glass went flying.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50865106703/in/dateposted-public/)

“What kind of a trick is this?!” Robert said, “Who are….no, WHAT are you?!”

“You hurt Rose Tyler who happens to be someone I care deeply for so now I will hurt you.”

The big man laughed, a vile and cruel sound. “Oh she is a feisty one, isn’t she? If it wasn’t for her determination to grab my keys I would have fucked her good before the night was over. Would have been just like old times. Did she ever mention how we used to go at it every chance we got? Tell me, John, does she still scratch and bite when you screw her?” the man stared back at him as he rose from the floor.

“Oh she does, doesn’t she? I can tell..lucky you!“ Robert continued, “ So young and sweet and sexy. I was able to grab a kiss from her in the alley. She even ground herself into me and getting me so hard. I remember what it was like years ago to have those full lips wrapped around my cock. Getting hard now just thinking about it. She was great at giving head.”

He knew he was merely baiting him, knew his bravado was his shield and yet it was having an effect on the part of him still Time Lord. He had to concentrate and see it for what it really was: a diversion tactic. He took a few deep breaths to recenter himself. But It still hurt.

“Shut Up!” the Time Lord growled, letting the other man’s words sting more than they should have, as much as Robert wanted them to. Emotions, rather than the single-minded focus that he carried in with him began to shadow his reasoning and cloud his judgment. “Don’t talk about her that way!”

“And why not? She loves sex. You some sort of prude, cause if you are she won’t be with you long. Unless you like to share in which case you can be the guy who holds her hand and let a guy like me fuck her raw.

The Time Lord stepped closer to the man all the while thinking….

“She didn’t tell me that she slept with him…did she really do that? Would she have told me if she had? If she really did have an affair with him and she didn’t admit it to me does that mean that I am nothing special to her?”

Too late he realized that he had made a very stupid and critical error in losing himself to his internal musings. He had left the door wide open to a counter-attack which the enemy stepped through. Robert had sensed that he had lost his focus, by the way, he reacted to his words and quickly barreled into the Time Lord knocking him hard against the edge of the bar and taking the wind out of him. He doubled over then was hit on the jaw by Robert's fist, bringing him to his knees. He had underestimated the other man’s fighting skills.

His mind was calculating damage: possible broken jaw, one cracked tooth, no ribs broken, GET UP! DEFEND! 

It was what he needed to bring him back to himself and back to his reason for being there. Old boyfriend or not, he nearly killed her tonight and THAT was his driving force.

He looked up at Robert with a trickle of blood running from his mouth to his chin and laughed. “I don’t know what you find so funny but let’s see you laugh after I kick your ass,” he said as he pulled his leg back to kick him. But the Storm was too quick and caught the ankle in his hand then twisted it viciously, sending Robert spinning to the ground, howling in pain. 

His jaw should have hurt but it barely registered. He knew that it would repair itself fairly quickly, unlike the broken ankle that the other was now screaming in agony from. He got up slowly, the Storm raging again in his eyes, and hovered over Robert, cocking his head to the side as an animal would, assessing damage to his prey and looking for vulnerabilities. Reaching down he hauled him to his feet, pushing him up against the bar.

“That was your only chance to best me. Now it is my turn.”


	9. RIPTIDE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: MORE EXPLICIT VIOLENCE
> 
> A very dark Ten but with very good reason. On the one hand he could be seen as sadistic while on the other it is simply payback. You decide!

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50549768911/in/dateposted-public/)

He grabbed the nearest bottle, turned it over, and poured its contents over the sputtering man's face, and then he said, “I can do one of two things…wellll, I COULD do both but I think one is enough. Because my first choice is to smash this bottle into your head. I wonder how that would feel, I really do. Probably the way Rose felt after her’s hit the concrete. Then again, it would also be satisfying to break the bottle and slice you open with it instead. Make you bleed a lot more than those scratches on the back of your hand.” He was right in the man's face now, taunting him.

“Your choice Robert, which will it be huh? Something wrong with your speech or are you just too dumb or too frightened to answer.”

The Storm waited for a beat and then said, “fine, fine I will make the choice” then he broke it to pieces by hitting it against the hard metal on the lip of the bar. He put the sharp edge against the man’s throat and watched him recoil in fear. The Storm laughed.

“You know what, I think that is just too easy using something besides my own hands to do the job. Not nearly as satisfying.”

Dropping the broken bottle he grabbed him around the throat and lifted him with ease, holding him there as the man tried to pry his hands free. He only held him for a moment or two before he released him and watched as he fell to the floor.

“GET UP!” the Storm was in his face again. “I WANT YOU TO GET UP AND HIT ME!” 

Robert stood up on his one good ankle.

“I am trying to make this fair so you get a free swing at me. So go on, try to do your worst.”

Robert stared at his attacker as if trying to find the right spot to hit and for a moment the Storm thought he wasn’t even going to try. What he hadn’t seen was that as Robert stood up he had grabbed a shard from the broken bottle. Hiding it behind his palm he struck out at the Storm’s neck but he had seen the glint of the weapon and dodged the blow at the very last minute by pulling back. The sharp, jagged edge cut into his arm instead, just deep enough to draw a fair amount of blood.

“You are getting slow in your old age,” he mumbled to himself as he reached over and took the piece of glass out of the man’s hand quicker than he could see. 

“Well, I’m still faster than you Robert” he grinned, teeth bared at him, “Nice try though only with a minimal amount of success but still, caught me off guard.”

He pushed him back against the opposite wall and drew himself up to his full height.

“Trust me on this, It won’t happen again.”

From there it was just a matter of blocking everything that his victim threw at him. Every punch he delivered, every wrestling hold or kick he tried was turned back against him until Robert was down on his knees with his body, like his will, shattered in pieces. 

As if having a calm conversation with a friend the Storm said, “I saw when you signed for your drinks that you are right-handed. Since you will need that hand to write your resignation letter I am going to do this to your left.”

He grabbed him by his left wrist and snapped it like a twig. Howling, the man cradled it against his chest. 

“Now you know the pain that Rose felt when her wrist broke as she was trying to save your worthless ass in your car.”

He realized as he cried and begged that he had lost and never really had a chance of winning. 

He was just being played with like a cat might entertain itself with a mouse.

But the Storm was just getting started.


	10. DROWNING

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50549763211/in/dateposted-public/)

“Please just let me go, I am sorry about Rose really I am and I will never get behind the wheel of a car drunk again.” 

He was pleading with the entity. All the Storm could think of was one word, a word that was placed on him just that day but that he had risen above and that word was COWARD. 

He grabbed the man by the front of his coat, “When we leave here we are going to do a few things. One is we are going to call the local police department where you are going to tell them how you nearly killed a girl with your car because you were drunk. Then you are going to write your resignation letter, quitting your position at your job because you got behind the wheel intoxicated and therefore cannot be trusted to represent a client in court. You are also going to tell Rose that you are sorry and that you were wrong. But most of all you will….and you had better listen to this one carefully….you will disappear from the lives of, and NEVER even walk the same block as, Rose or her family or friends because if you do I will find you and you will beg for death. I will make you disappear and I can guarantee that no one will miss you or go looking for you because you will… Not. Have. Existed.” 

Robert was looking into the creature's eyes and even though what he was saying was utterly ridiculous he believed him. This was a thing that could control time, who knows what else it could do.

“Now, do you understand what I have told you?” The man nodded in agreement but the Doctor wanted to hear his voice. Pulling him till they were nose to nose he said “SAY IT! OR SO HELP ME I WILL BREAK THE OTHER ONE! IN FACT, MAYBE I WILL ANYWAY. I LIKED THE SOUND IT MADE WHEN IT SNAPPED.”

Nearly sobbing the big man finally said “Please, please don’t. I understand I understand.”

“Good boy.” The Storm mocked him before hitting him square in the jaw, breaking it as he had broken his.

“I think that was only fair, don’t you? Now then, where were we?”

When the Time Lord allowed the clock to synchronize again they were already gone. They were standing in front of the bar, on a chilly rain-soaked street waiting for Rose.

“Jackie, yes I am fine, just a broken jaw and a cut but that’s nothing, I heal quick. I know it only seems like a few minutes since you left me. Being a Lord of Time has its advantages. I’ll explain later. Can you ask Rose to come to the front of the bar please…someone here has an apology they need to give face to face.”

Just a few minutes later Rose rounded the corner and froze. The man she was seeing, the man who had in effect broken her wrist and was responsible for her concussion was a mass of bruises. Looking him over she could also tell that his wrist was broken as well as his ankle and who knows what else.

“Doctor? What have you done?” to the Time Lords' ears she almost sounded angry.

“This was payback Rose AND assurance that he would never bother you, Jackie, or Shareen, and also that he will NEVER attempt to drive drunk again. He is also going to resign from his position at the law firm because he is unfit to do his job. I think I got those messages across to him pretty well. Oh, and the police should be here any minute since he reported to them what he had done. And he will NOT mention you, your Mum, or Shareen's names when he speaks to them. You will just be some nameless girl he picked up in the bar. I just wanted to make sure he apologized to you first” 

“Go on, do it!” the Doctor said to Robert.

“I…I’m sorry Rose” he could barely speak with his jaw shattered but she understood.

He pushed Robert up against the wall while he whimpered. “Now, you are going to stay right here and wait for the police and then tell them again what you had done. Do NOT sugarcoat the truth. Being an EX Solicitor I know you will want to do just that but don’t you dare or you will have me to deal with. I will be keeping an eye on you and I swear if there is one…just one tiny slip up I will come for you.”

With that he let him go and Robert crumpled to the ground, sitting there defeated. It was at that moment that Jackie turned the corner and saw them. She gasped and looked from one man to the other.

“No need to come down on him Jackie, he is VERY sorry. Just told Rose he was and we made a lot of decisions in the process.”

They could hear the sirens approaching. “Let’s go,” then added, “Robert, remember what I said. I will be watching .”

And with that, they went back to the Tardis and disappeared.


	11. RECOVERY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for him to power down.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50865922722/in/dateposted-public/)

“We have to make one stop….where again? Oh, right one-stop at Robert’s old place of employment. Need to drop off his letter…. letter of resignation.” He reached for a lever but his hand was shaking so bad that he had a hard time grasping it. 

(‘I am in the Tardis. I am safe. I am in the Tardis. I am safe. I am in the Tardis, I am safe’) 

“Doctor?” Rose was creeping up to him slowly, a little afraid to startle him.

“Doctor, look at me please.”

He turned towards her with Jackie close behind and all Rose could see was something wild there. His eyes were different somehow. She hardly recognized this man at all.

“Are you alright?” Jackie said and all at once the Doctor seemed to crumble in front of their eyes. 

“Rose? Am I alright? Not sure actually. Can you help me please. Need….”

That was all he managed before he slumped forward against the console, shaking with what looked to be something akin to a seizure. Both women saw that he was about to collapse so they grabbed him and made him sit on the jumpseat. He was breathing fast, nearly hyperventilating and when Rose reached up and removed his glasses he appeared disoriented like he couldn’t focus. At first Rose thought it was due to his bout with being blind but then realized that wasn’t the case. He was somewhere else. He was someONE else.

Rose sat next to him and hugged him tightly, feeling his hearts racing way too fast. Then slowly, very slowly he wrapped his arms around her, leaned his cheek against the top of her head, closed his eyes, and hugged her back.

“Hello,” he said in a trembling voice.

“Hello” she nearly sobbed back in relief.

“That took a lot out of me. Gonna need to rest later. Ok for now but very shaky. Did I hurt him badly? Memory is a bit....hazy. Think I did. Oh, I am just…just fragmented. Been a long time since I have done anything like that. Never tried to combine a Time Bubble with the Storm persona before. Higher functions are all messed up, got to piece myself back together like a jigsaw puzzle. We should do jigsaw puzzles, Rose, just sit in the library and work on one together, wouldn’t that be nice? Ohhh….here I am, starting to babble. That is a good sign that I am reintegrating. I bet I can find a planet where they do a lot of jigsaw puzzles and we can get a special one made up just for us, okay Rose?”

Wherever he had gone he was starting to come back. She could see it in his eyes which were looking at her with clarity.

“Enough about jigsaw puzzles, what happened in there?” Jackie said and he thought, of course, Jackie would get right to the point. Well, they deserved as best of an explanation as he could give them.

Feeling like himself again he felt he could answer her.

“Well, first of all, it only seems like I was gone a short time because I had to speed it up for both Robert and myself. Nasty little maneuver, that.”

“Then…well, Jackie remember how I told you about Time Lord history?” he began,“ I allowed that undisciplined part of myself, that ancient part of my physiology to take over. It is kind of the opposite of regeneration if you can picture that. I changed from the person I am now, DEgenerating way back to a being that had no problem using violence to ‘fix’ things.” 

“So you became evil?” Rose didn’t recoil from him but he could feel her stiffen in his arms.

“Oh no. No, no, no. If I was evil I would have killed him. I wouldn’t have bothered with the demands I made of him, I would have walked in there and done away with him straight away. But I do have beliefs and morals which never completely leave me. Murder is just not part of who I am….down to my core I find it repulsive. Of course in the heat of the moment if it is kill or be killed with no other way out or if either of you are in danger then my morals fly out the window.”

“Rose?” she was watching him as if trying to figure out a different kind of puzzle which he guessed he was at heart. He knew that she still didn’t quite understand everything he was saying because Rose was missing something very important. The most important part and the driving force behind everything that went on that night. Why he did what he did was more important than the mechanics behind it. 

Now was the time to risk it all.

“Rose, you know me better than any being has ever known me and that is the truth. I have shared myself with you, opened my hearts to you in a way that I have never done before, not with anyone” He took her hands and placed them on his chest. “They beat for you Rose. If I thought for one second that you or your Mum might be in any danger from me I would take the Tardis, lower her shields and fly into the sun and kill myself. I would do it, Rose, I swear. YOU are my reason for living and even if I don’t believe in it totally, if I did have a soul you would own that as well. I….”

Rose, during this whole speech, began to cry both in relief that he had come back to himself and because he actually loved her as much as she loved him. Looking over at her Mum she saw that she was close to tears too.

“I’m sorry…I am rambling here but what I am trying to say is that I love you Rose Tyler. This life and all my future lives are yours. And as far back as I can remember from all my past lives somehow you have been inside my mind calling me, comforting me. You have always been my touchstone, my constant, my own personal north star. You saved me from myself when I had nothing to live for. Bottom line? I would lay down my life….all my lives to keep you safe. 

Then he turned to Jackie, “You too Jackie, you are family and I haven’t had one for decades. I would do the same for you, defend you with my last breath.”

He looked at Rose and then reached up to move a lock of hair to behind her ear. He decided to expound a bit to wrap it up.

“That is why my reaction to Robert seemed so over the top. It was because of what he did to you AND what he could do to someone else if he wasn’t punished. I admit I was enraged but he will survive his run-in with me tonight. I snuck a look at his timeline and he actually goes on to be a pillar of the community, using his legal knowledge to help those who can’t afford it.”

“Oh, and by the way Jackie, while I am laying my hearts out here do I have your permission to marry your daughter?”


	12. LOVE IS IN THE AIR

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50776031348/in/dateposted-public/)

“I know I am a bit of a nutter and am an alien and all but you are both aliens to me too and, well, I am YOUR alien nutter who you adore, I hope, and who adores you back and I would love and protect your daughter always….even have another sword fight on Christmas or do battle with a killer Christmas tree again. But that sounds like I will only save you both on a holiday which is silly and…..”

Rose began to giggle.

“What?” the Doctor asked, with a bit of a frown. “I would do those things, I really would!”

“Well, besides the fact that you are babbling again, aren’t you forgetting something important?

“What? I promise to even help put up decorations including mistletoe, as long as I am allowed to kiss you under each one. There would be a house full of mistletoe! Is that it, what I am forgetting?”

He knew he was grasping at straws and seemed to be stuck on a Christmas theme while his nerves had somehow hijacked his mouth because he was now rambling on with nonsense. 

Rose finally took pity on him. “Don’t you think it would be nice to ask me first if I even want to marry you!”

The Doctor busted out in laughter and then abruptly stopped and frowned.

(‘Maybe she doesn’t want to marry me.’ he thought, ‘I mean I know I am not the easiest person to live with and I probably snore or drool in my sleep, maybe both, no wait Time Lords DO NOT SNORE or DROOL, but maybe I do… possibly not sure…should get the Tardis to record my sleep pattern to see if I snore, oh and life with me is dangerous and oh no, now I am babbling in my own head! She has to love me …please, please.’)

And luckily both Rose and Jackie were laughing.

“Of course I want to marry you! I have been waiting for you to commit to me for so long but never thought you would. And then Reinette came along and I felt like I would never have your hearts….never ever, not totally.”

“Wait, whose Reinette?” Jackie had to ask.

“Just this famous French aristocrat who thought I loved her and who loved me and kissed me, no big deal” the doctors eyes never left Rose.

“WHAT??!!” Jackies voice was rising to ear-splitting levels now.

“No….Mum, it is ok, let him talk” Rose looked back at him, “Well…go on, talk.”

The Doctor put his finger over her lips, “Rose, like I said you and you alone have had my hearts practically since we met. Reinette….and Mickey too, were just living reflections of my fear of getting too close to you. I thought that having them around would keep me from facing how hard and how far I had already fallen in love with you. That somehow they would distract me and maybe you because of Mickey, from my true feelings. But I was and still am a stupid old fool who couldn’t stop loving you no matter how many pretend distractions are thrown in my path. I don’t deserve you, I really don’t. You are so much more than a million Reinettes could ever hope to be. You are better than me Rose, in so many ways.”

He felt his own tears welling up and tried to hold them back. He felt her hand cover his own and then place it over her heart. “And mine belongs to you, forever. But if you EVER so much as wink at another woman you will be sleeping on the couch mister, understood?” she said with a huge grin on her face.

“It’s a deal, soon-to-be Mrs. Doctor. And no more flirting with all the pretty boys you see!” then added, “Would that couch be the one in the library on the Tardis or the one in the flat? Because in case you hadn’t noticed I am quite tall and the couch in the flat is a bit short for me.”

“Oh shut it” Jackie chimed in from across the room. “To answer your original question to me, yes you can marry my daughter as long as you find a way to give me grandchildren that don’t have extra appendages and bring her back often PLUS let me plan a human wedding. Do you agree to my terms?”

“Ummm…human wedding huh?” he smirked, “Well if we HAVE to then I guess….and as for the child with extra appendages, well, my brother had flippers for feet and no hands.”

Both Jackie and Rose looked horrified.

“Just kidding! Genetics is a fascinating topic though…Ow!” Rose hit him In the shoulder with her good hand which brought up another issue.

“Luv, now that we have committed ourselves to each other do you think you could fix my wrist because it still hurts quite a lot.”

Rose was holding out her hand to show him the swelling. The Doctor stood up so fast it scared her for just a second.

“SEE ROSE! OLD AND STUPID! HOW COULD I FORGET THAT YOUR WRIST WAS BROKEN? I JUST KEPT BABBLING ON FOREVER WHILE YOU WERE IN PAIN! ”

Rose got up and followed him to the infirmary. “It’s OK Doctor, it was worth the pain to hear you tell me how much you love me.”

“It could have waited! Rose, I am sooo sorry!”

She grabbed his lapel with her good hand and kissed him passionately. He stood there eyes wide, in a bit of shock.

“No, it couldn’t wait” she gave him a tongue touched grin that spoke of promises saved for a more private time.

“Besides, I would like to have the use of BOTH hands for later”


	13. TALKING AND FORGETTING

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talk of timelines and weddings and Jimmy plus lions and tigers and bears. OK, only three of those things are true.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50863433007/in/dateposted-public/)

A fancy x-ray and then a couple of minutes with her wrist plunged under what felt like an alien wrist mud bath had her feeling much better. Then to be on the safe side he applied a bone setting gel he had stashed away from a visit to Borin years back and Rose was almost as good as new. Another blue pill for any residual pain and a wrap to make sure the gel got all the way under the dermal layers and to the bone and “Viola!” as he exclaimed “all better!” He examined the cut on her head, cleaning the spots that Jackie missed, and then put some special cream on that after deciding that she didn’t need stitches after all. 

For himself, he decided to (with protest from Rose) snap his jaw back into place. So, with a very unmanly groan of pain, he pushed it back where it belonged. His cut required some of that special gel and a wrap as well, then he packed the tooth with some other alien cream. When they were both nearly as good as new he helped her off of the table, just to feel her breasts rub against his chest on the way down and both of them walked hand in hand back to look for Jackie. She had found the library and the Romance Novels section of course and was so engrossed in one that she didn’t even hear them come in. 

“Wait, you have a Romance Novel section?” Rose couldn’t help but tease him.

“Weellllll….” He began, “Some of the finest works were deemed romance novels. Some of Shakespeare’s stuff in fact, although they may be the ones I helped him write.”

“You have written romance novels?” Now she was shocked.

“HELPED write Rose, HELPED. So only parts of some. I am an old softie, after all.”

“I have never seen that part of you!” she marveled at his diversity.

“There are many parts of me you haven’t seen, Rose Tyler. But that will change tonight, if you want it to change, that is.”

To him she took a beat too long to think about.

“But if you don’t, that is okay, although parts of me are quite interested in revealing themselves to parts of you, but we can wait and in case you aren’t catching my innuendos I mean we can wait until the wedding night if you want, or whenever, whatever you want Rose is fine, blushing bride and all.”

“You mean that all this time you really haven’t?” her Mum spoke up, obviously now more interested in the romance going on in the room instead of in the book.

“I told you we weren’t like that Mum!” Rose shot back.

“Not yet anyway” he whispered but Jackie heard him .

“And it better stay that way!” she added but with a grin and an eyebrow raise that really said “Oh go on, I helped change him into his jimjams remember? Looks very fit to me..”

“Well! Anyway….” To combat the awkward moment, “gotta drop this letter off showing that Robert resigns from his newest position and then we can get you home Jackie.”

The Doctor reluctantly let go of Rose's hand in order to retreat back to the console room and set in the coordinates. He then grabbed both Robert's letter and his Psychic Paper which will show that he has permission to act on Robert's behalf and off he went, giving mother and daughter a moment to themselves.

“So you alright then?” her Mum asked her

“Yeah, the hand will be fine. Feels almost like nothing happened to it actually.” Rose walked slowly around the console.

“I don’t mean your wrist Rose and you know it. You two okay? Do you believe him?” Jackie sat on the jumpseat, watching her only daughter wander around.

“Course I do, no reason not to.”

“I do too but still…you saw how Robert looked and how he acted with Robert. I just worry, ‘is all. I mean, if he can do something like that then whose to say he wouldn’t, would never….”

“Stop Mum, just stop. You heard what he said, he would rather die than hurt me or you for that matter. I will admit I have never seen him act like that before but he was so angry about how I was hurt and….”

“And what about Jimmy? Someone with that type of temper could murder. He said he was against murder but if he was the one to take Jimmy’s life then who's to say he wouldn’t get that angry with you if you burnt the toast or something?”

“Now you are being silly. Seriously? And you seemed grateful about Jimmy cause now you don’t have to worry about when he gets out of jail coming after you and all.”

“And I was, up until when he said that he wouldn’t be able to do something like that….”

“Mum, he also said unless either of our lives were in danger and I think, I really think that he felt that we were both in danger. Jimmy had said that he would get back at us for testifying at his trial and since he was due to be released very soon the Doctor felt our lives were threatened. He knows he can’t be here all the time to protect you and he did know about Jimmy being set free soon. What if he had come to get you while we were gone? What if Jimmy followed through on his threats without us being here? He had no remorse, Mum. None. He hadn’t changed at all…if anything he had gotten worse.”

Just then the Doctor came bounding back through the door, obviously everything taken care of.

“All sorted then?” Jackie asked, the previous conversation sparking the one question still yet unanswered.

“Yep done. They thanked me for my assistance and took his name off their roster. Now we can get you home.”

“Can I ask you, something Doctor?” Jackie looked over at Rose who was shaking her head at her not to.

“Where it comes to how you acted with Robert.” 

“Yes?” he paused with his hand over a lever, waiting.

“Well, Rose is my only daughter and I know what you said and all, but there is a question that I have about Jimmy Stone….”

His hand fell away from the console and he waited, hand tightened into a fist, knuckles white.

“Go on” he admonished, knowing the question that hung in the air between them.

“Well….did you?” she didn’t have to go any further.

“Yes. Anything else?”

“Just answer me why?” Jackie stood up

“Isn’t it obvious after what I said earlier? He hurt Rose and he promised to hurt both of you as soon as he could, probably while I wasn’t around. So that became a risk that was totally unacceptable.”

“So you decided to be his judge, jury, and executioner then?” Jackie said, a bit harder than she really wanted it to. After all, she could finally breathe a sigh of relief where her fear of Jimmy was concerned.

“I became those things yes. Someone had to consider how the system at large failed both of you. If you are waiting for my apology you have a long wait, Jackie, because I don’t feel it is warranted. I am not sorry.”

He looked over at her for the first time and she saw the conviction in his eyes, the tightness in his jaw, felt the air surrounding them shift to a bit icier.

“No, just reassurance is all. I worry about her Doctor, she is hardly here and I know she is out there somewhere doing good with you but I can’t just let her fly away wondering if she is safe, or if she is okay. What if you get very angry one day….?”

The Doctor looked at her strangely and thought to himself ‘didn’t she hear me earlier when I said what I would do if I felt like I was a threat to her?’

“I would tear a world apart for her. Lay waste to anything or anyone that would do her harm. Is that what you want to hear? A Time Lords temper is not something to play with. I would do those things Jackie, and what is far more frightening is that I CAN do those things. You saw that for yourself tonight. But as for being at risk from me, if what I just said isn’t evidence enough then remember that I died for her once. Yeah I know I regenerated but still, I let the old me die because it was the only way to make sure she lived. And I would keep doing it until I had no lives left. She almost died saving me. Really forever and permanently died. Don’t think I forgot that or would ever forget that.” 

“Lately all I had been doing is sitting around feeling so sorry for myself being blind and deaf and not knowing if I would ever be the type of man worthy of her sacrifice ever again. But Rose being Rose went and threw that out of the window, ready to stick around and put up with me one more time. She pulled a corpse out of space and, with your help, brought me back to life once again for Rassilons sake! I was so worried about her being ‘out there’ with me, as you put it, that before I gained both my hearing and sight back I came very close to leaving her behind this time.”

Rose, who had no idea that he was planning to do such a thing could only listen dumbstruck.

“Then Robert came along and I realized two things, well three, the first being that she is at risk of getting hurt here just as much as out there, two that she is safer with me than without me, and three that I am infinitely safer if she is there to help protect me than if I am by myself. Okay four, that I love her and it was about damn time I told her.”

“As I told you, I took a look at Robert's timeline and saw that after last night he turned himself around. He became an asset to the world at large. Normally there can be an infinite number of timelines. Roberts is fixed, what he does from this point on is set in stone so to speak. Jimmy had a few and none of them….I repeat NONE of them were good. They all pointed to more pain and more hurt inflicted by him on all the lives he might have touched. The world is a better and safer place without him. That is part of who I am, Jackie. Sometimes it makes my decisions easier but sometimes it just makes it harder to bear.”

“You know, you could make money with that talent of yours.” Then Jackie asked in all seriousness, “What about Rose? Can you see her timeline too?” 

Just like her to not ask about her own, just Roses he thought.

He paused, obviously weighing something in his mind. “All I know is that she has a few. Some very very good and some not so good although none horrible. Her’s is a bit harder to see because of her exposure to the heart of the Tardis. Time flows differently around her, like a river running upstream instead of down. She is a bit of an anomaly and is much harder to sort out. I also may not be able to see her’s as clearly because I love her and that could cloud my view.”

He looked over at Rose and smiled shyly, the opposite of the hard-edged and dangerous ‘thing’ he was before.

“In summary,” he laughed, “Time is always in flux and all we can ever do is put one foot in front of the other and go where it leads.”

Jackie just smiled at him, “Didn’t know you had the heart of a poet, Doctor.”

He began to grin back, “Now you two are linked and more than just as mother and daugther. You’ll always be together. Whether I am in the picture or not is unknown. I can’t see my own time line because of all the regenerations…all the stops and starts. Plus only another Time Lord can see the full-time line of another Time Lord. But no matter what, she is part of me. No matter whether we are together or not she has such a big part of my hearts that someone would have to rip them out to dissolve what we have together.”

“See, you had me babbling again.” He stopped, the seriousness seeming to lift a bit. “So okay? And please say it is because I really need to recuperate from bending time and from all the physical pain and changes my body went through” his eyes were pleading even as they sparkled and the smile was back in place just as the Tardis landed softly in her parlor.

“S’okay Doctor, I believe you” then went over to hug him and give him a kiss on the cheek. She left with a “thank you” before hugging Rose and saying finally “bring her back to me Doctor” before walking out and closing the door.


	14. FINALLY (Almost)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It gets, well a little steamy from here on. Not necessarily smutty in this one (wait till the next and last for THAT) but this is where the ride starts.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/190433625@N02/50776031323/in/dateposted-public/)

“Well…” he began as he stood frozen in place by the monitor, “that’s done.”

“Yep” Rose said, a little shy, “that sure is.”

“Nothing left to do now, unless…you know, you are hungry and want to get a snack before, well before whatever. Are you hungry Rose? Want me to throw together dinner? Maybe a four course meal is in order, huh?” the Doctor started walking towards the Galley. 

“Doctor?” she said stopping him in his tracks. “I am really not hungry right now. Unless you are that is?”

The Doctor sighed but wouldn’t turn to look at her. “No, not really, want me to find us that jigsaw puzzle planet? May take a while though.” He almost sounded defeated.

“No, maybe another time. Doctor?” playing with the string on her hoodie, “Have you changed your mind?”

“About what?” he knew but wanted to hear her voice it.

“About us and being together. You did say you needed to rest, ya? So I thought that maybe, I don’t know, we could rest together?”

“That all depends on whether you thought about what I asked you before about waiting, wedding night and all, remember?”

“Um hmmm, I remember and, well, I’m not a virgin so I guess waiting for the wedding night would seem a little silly especially since I love you and really want this to be special.”

That brought up an unwanted memory that had been buried since last night under the weight of his higher mind, all the way down into his more primitive brain. Something that he knew instinctively the correct answer to but he could not stop his mouth from spewing it out.

“Rose, Robert was saying that you two had slept together years ago and, well, he went into graphic detail so I wanted to know if he was lying or not?”

Rose was prepared for most things but was unprepared for that. She looked at him wide-eyed in shock and then became angry that he would even think or believe anything coming from a low life like Robert. 

“Not that it really should matter or that it is any of your business but only Jimmy and Mickey and one other guy when I was drunk at a party. That is the extent of my experience.” She said through gritted teeth. “Do you think I am just some sort of loose woman who slept with every guy that wanted me? ‘Cause if I had I would have been very busy!” 

He knew right after saying it that it would make her mad. Right after he mentally slapped himself she walked up and slapped him for real which he kind of expected and just thanked the gods that Jackie wasn’t still there to slap the other cheek. 

“You know, I think you do need your rest….ALONE” right before storming off to her own room. 

‘You know for a Lord of Time you have rotten timing’ he thought as he followed her, pleading with her as they walked, begging like a little puppy with its tail between its legs.

(‘Big and scary Oncoming Storm huh? Where is all your bravado now Destroyer of Worlds? Following an Earth girl down a hall.’)

For some reason the whole idea of him being the most powerful being in the Universe who was now ‘following an Earth girl’ brought him up short, stopping him in his tracks. He planted his feet in defiance and just stood there.

“Fine!” he yelled after her, his pride keeping him rooted to the spot, “I am not going to beg any more. Sleep with whoever you want! In fact, I will go and put in the coordinates for the planet of pretty boys right now! There’s got to be a world where some handsome prince or king is looking for a mistress!”

She also had stopped walking and he could tell by her stance even facing away that she was seething. 

“What, like your precious Reinette?! Sleeping with anything that moves, including ancient Time Lords who think with what’s dangling between their legs! No thank you, I would rather go back to Mickey who at least never hurt me and loved me despite my past with two other boys.” 

He took three long strides and grabbed her by her shoulders, spinning her around to face him and then pinning her up against the wall. She struggled, pushing against his chest but he wouldn’t let her go, his face mere inches from hers.

“First of all I told you I never did anything with Reinette and that is the truth! Second, no bringing past boyfriends up anymore including Mickey! Third, it really doesn’t matter who you slept with; that was just my stupid, fragile ego talking before. “

He took a breath and made sure she was listening.

“And finally and most importantly I am not a boy. I am many things, using whatever name you please but underneath it all I am a man. A man who bent time and nearly crippled your date because he had hurt you. A man who wants you desperately, who wants to make love to you as only a man can, as only ‘I’ can I want to taste every inch of you, to touch you inside and out with my mind and body. Who wants to mark you and make you mine so that no other man would dare touch you. That’s who I am Rose, that is WHAT I am. The question is; can you handle that?”

She had stopped struggling at some point and stood there captivated by his words, by his admission. He was so close that their breaths mingled, so close that she swore she felt sparks literally flying off their skin. She had licked her lips in invitation, a movement he did not miss. He turned his head to the side and took her mouth so fast that if she had been breathing she would have become breathless.

The kiss was hard and almost brutal in its intensity. It was so ‘him’, so strong and like no other kiss she had ever experienced. He was devouring her, drinking from her, his tongue tasting every inch and savoring the different flavors he found there. The tea she had earlier with only a hint of sugar and milk, the mint from her toothpaste, and a taste under it all that he recognized as himself from earlier in the infirmary. Nothing other than that and certainly no Robert. Tasting himself there had him fully hard in an instant. It had been so long for both of them that the anticipation itself made it seem like the first time for both.

For a quick moment, he let his mind drift back to his last time, to his 8th incarnation before the Time War when he was at his most joyful, free, and adventurous. Like his present self, his 8th was a born romantic and was on Nester Three where he had heard the women were beautiful and the drinks were the best in the Galaxy. What he didn’t know was that all the women in the bars had an aphrodisiac embedded in their nails and if you were scratched you were a goner. He certainly didn’t know that his superior Time Lord physiology was going to be useless against the chemical compound. Then again after a little while, he really hadn’t cared.

He remembered having this beautiful blue-skinned, green-eyed native on his lap and feeling her scratch him on his neck. Next thing he knew they had somehow migrated to a room with a bed, the now naked blue woman riding him for all she was worth. He knew he didn’t need much ‘downtime’ after each orgasm but this was just ridiculous having lost count of them fairly quickly. The girl was very pleased, he remembered that much. By the time he had dragged his exhausted body back to the Tardis albeit with a stupid grin on his face, his ship, which never understood the need for sex, to begin with, was frustrated enough to send a screech of annoyance into his head that basically translated to ‘next time use your damn hand!’

But with Rose, with love and passion fanning the flames something was bound to ignite. And even though he didn’t, as a rule, believe in destiny, this he felt was destined to happen. They didn’t have to try…didn’t have to force anything because it had always been there from the start. It was just a matter of time (and the irony of that wasn’t lost on him) and the time was now.

He pressed his body against hers, hard lines into her soft ones. Their hands sought out any flesh already revealed and roamed over and under fabric for more. Even the Tardis whispered her approval, very unlike her previous reaction those many, many years ago. Even she understood that this was destined to be more than just a physical release, more than just sex. She knew….somehow she knew.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to all who have commented and left kudos so far, it really makes it all worthwhile!


End file.
